We blogged the last-minute salvos as the Granite State headed to the polls and the results came in.

10:38 p.m. A couple of quick thoughts on the race:

1) Times have changed enough that it now is possible to be too anti-gay for even a GOP presidential primary contest. The young let-us-alone brigades who backed Paul also blocked Santorum's ascent in New Hampshire.

2) It was a very good night for Mormons running for president, with Romney and Huntsman taking first and third in the state, and later making remarks alongside large, good-looking and prosperous families, who will help any barriers left for Mormons in public life fall.

3) New Hampshire pollsters did a commendable job in a notoriously hard to poll state; there were no major surprises, for a change.

4) For all the early chatter about the GOP's field of far-right candidates, the race in the end took some surprisingly liberal turns, with voters handing the victory in both Iowa and N.H. to a Massachusetts moderate (or former moderate, at any rate) whose career has now sparked a debate within the GOP about the moral worthiness of financial sector work.

And with that, ladies and gentlemen, I bid you good night.

10:01 p.m. Everyone's staying in, it seems. In speeches following Romney's tonight, Ron Paul (No. 2 finisher), Jon Hunstman (No. 3) and Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum (still trading votes between 4th and 5th) all indicated they would stay in the race and continue to fight in South Carolina, which holds its primary January 21. Paul gave a long series of remarks to a wildly enthusiastic audience that broke out into chant of "revolution!", discoursing widely on liberty, the Federal Reserve, monetary policy, inflation, and intellectual diversity. Huntsman, for his part, was oddly ebullient, declaring: "Ladies and gentlemen I think we're in the hunt...third place is a ticket to ride." Santorum was downcast, but pointed out that he'd doubled or tripled his poll numbers in the state since winning the Iowa caucuses. And Gingrich was unapologetic for his attacks on Romney, which have opened a rift within the Republican party over how to talk about unfettered free-market capitalism and the financial sector. All vowed to press on.

8:40 p.m. Mitt to N.H.: "You're the best!" A beaming Mitt Romney just finished addressing his supporters in New Hampshire, clearly savoring the win as they chanted "Mitt Mitt Mitt" and hooted their joy, but wasting no time in resuming his relentless critique of President Obama in words honed on the stump across multiple states.

"Tonight we celebrate, tomorrow we go back to work," Romney said. But his speech saw him eager to go back to work immediately as he quickly shifted into a general election attack. "Today we're faced with the disappointing record of a failed president," he said, pointing to Obama's comment on the economy that "it could be worse." "It could be worse?! That's not what it means to be an American, it could be worse," Romney said. "What defines us as Americans is our unwavering conviction that it must be better and it will be better....Americans know that our future is brighter and better than these troubled times....We still believe in the hope the promise and the dream of America."

"The president has run out of ideas, now he's running out of excuses," Romney said, as the crowd again burst out with cries of Mitt Mitt Mitt Mitt. A smile crept across his face. "Tonight were asking the good people of South Carolina to join the people of New Hampshire and make 2012 the year he runs out of time."

Romney nodded toward the critiques of his tenure at Bain Capital coming from other Republicans, but turned even that into a critique of the president. "President Obama wants to put free enterprise on trial and in the last few days we've seen some desperate Republicans join forces with him," Romney said. This was "such a mistake for our party." He urged Americans to be "lifted up by our desire to succeed, not dragged down by our envy of success" and to celebrate the core values that unite the nation.

He closed by thanking New Hampshire for the victory that eluded him four years ago -- "You're the best!" -- and turned away from the cameras to his assembled family.

8:22 p.m. A solid second for Paul. CNN is now projecting that Ron Paul will come in second in N.H. and Jon Huntsman will come in third.

8:18 p.m. Huntsman staying in. Now in third place behind Mitt Romney and Ron Paul in the New Hampshire voting, Jon Huntsman tells CNN he will not be dropping out of the race: "There are at least three tickets out of New Hampshire." His campaign will go on to South Carolina and is in "a solid, comfortable, confident position," he said.

6:41 p.m. Exit poll hints. Early exit polls are coming in, and show a surprisingly high percentage of independent voters -- 44 percent -- in the contest, with Mitt Romney "narrowly leading among that vital voting bloc," according to Fox News. Also, that voters in N.H. have more money than voters did in Iowa.

6:29 p.m. More about that anti-Romney video. Former Atlantic senior editor Joshua Green took a gander at "When Mitt Romney Came to Town," the film purchased by the Gingrich-leaning Super PAC Winning Our Future for airing, in some form, in South Carolina. His observations: "The film focuses on four companies acquired by Bain that later suffered difficulties or filed for bankruptcy -- UniMac Corp., KB Toys, America Pad & Paper or Ampad, and DDI Corp. (DDIC), an electronics company....[an interview with a] purportedly fired worker is juxtaposed with a clip of Romney saying, 'For an economy to thrive, there are a lot of people who will suffer as a result of that.'....A woman is shown claiming that Romney has '15 homes,' although recent public reports indicate that Romney currently has three homes. Twice in the film, Romney is also shown speaking in French. The two-time presidential aspirant was a Mormon missionary in France as a young man."

4:33 p.m. Bill Kristol is skeptical of Bain's defenders. "If this is where some in the conservative movement and the Republican party are inclined to go--four cheers for finance capitalism!--good luck. Indeed, it's useful to flush out this tendency now, and subject it to debate. Because it's a recipe for political disaster--and intellectual sterility," he writes in The Weekly Standard.

"Post 2008, capitalism needs its strong defenders--but its defenders need also to be its constructive critics. The Tea Party was right. What's needed is a critique of Big Government above all, but also of Big Business and Big Finance and Big Labor (and Big Education and Big Media and all the rest)--and especially a critique of all those occasions when one or more of these institutions conspire against the common good."

3:45 p.m. GOP not well positioned on decrying capitalism. Former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich raises a note of skepticism in Salon when it comes to the Romney critics: "I'm all in favor of reforming capitalism, but you'll permit me some skepticism when it comes to criticisms of Bain Capital coming from Romney's Republican opponents. None of these Republican candidates has exactly distinguished himself with new ideas for giving Americans more economic security. To the contrary -- until the assault on Romney and Bain Capital -- every one of them has been a cheerleader for financial capitalism of the most brutal sort."

3:40 p.m. That pro-Romney PAC has spent at least $7 million so far. Reports NBC: "Restore Our Future, the Super PAC supporting Mitt Romney's presidential bid, has placed a new $1.7 ad buy in Florida, bringing its total spending to $7 million and counting, according to Smart Media Group Delta, the ad-tracking firm partnering with NBC News. By comparison, the well-financed Romney campaign so far has spent just $5.5 million in advertising." Little wonder Newt Gingrich is so mad.

3:35 p.m. Ron Paul's campaign defends Mitt Romney. Paul campaign national chairman Jesse Benton decries the pile-on over Romney's firing people comment. "Rick Santorum, Jon Huntsman, and Newt Gingrich are once again proving why they are unfit to be President and why this has become a two man national race between Mitt Romney, the candidate of the status quo, and Ron Paul, the candidate of real change," Benton said in a statement.

"Two important issues that should unite Republicans are a belief in free markets and an understanding that the media often use 'gotcha' tactics to discredit us. Rather than run against Governor Romney on the issues of the day Santorum, Huntsman, and Gingrich have chosen to play along with the media elites and exploit a quote taken horribly out of context. They are also using the language of the liberal left to attack private equity and condemn capitalism in a desperate and, frankly, unsavory attempt to tear down another Republican with tactics akin to those of MoveOn.org."

2:22 p.m. Ouch. Santorum, reflecting on how his upbringing is different than Romney's: "the nuns beat my knuckles bare."

1:58 p.m. No, you're fired. The DNC has released a Web video response to Romney's comment on liking to fire people:

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1:41p.m. A One State Wonder.The Hill reports: "Jon Huntsman might be the trendy pick to surge in the New Hampshire primary, but a Public Policy Polling survey released on Tuesday shows it will be a challenge for him to carry that momentum into South Carolina, where he's currently polling behind comedian Stephen Colbert." Many people raise questions about PPP's polls. But still.

11:49 a.m. Ready, Aim, Fire. Mitt Romney's gaffe about liking to fire people continued to resonate Tuesday, TPM reports: "At an event in New Hampshire Tuesday, as Romney held a baby, someone in the audience yelled, 'Are you going to fire the baby?'"

11:01 a.m. Gingrich has a private equity past.CNN reports: "Upon leaving Congress in 1999, the former Speaker joined private equity firm Forstmann Little & Co. as a member of its advisory board. It is unclear how long Gingrich served on the advisory board, or how much he was paid. The campaign has not yet responded to a request for comment. Forstmann Little was one of the world's original leveraged buyout firms, although its founder -- the late Teddy Forsmann -- often railed against what he saw as over-leveraging by rival firms (presumably including Bain). It effectively began winding down operations in 2005, following a legal dispute with the State of Connecticut over failed investments in a pair of large communications companies." The Boston Globe'sJeff Jacoby says it was also a competitor to Bain Capital.

11:00 a.m. A pro-Rommney backlash? New Hampshirites don't like being told what to think -- just ask Hillary Clinton. Tweets a Romney strategist:

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Should you drink more coffee? Should you take melatonin? Can you train yourself to need less sleep? A physician’s guide to sleep in a stressful age.

During residency, Iworked hospital shifts that could last 36 hours, without sleep, often without breaks of more than a few minutes. Even writing this now, it sounds to me like I’m bragging or laying claim to some fortitude of character. I can’t think of another type of self-injury that might be similarly lauded, except maybe binge drinking. Technically the shifts were 30 hours, the mandatory limit imposed by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, but we stayed longer because people kept getting sick. Being a doctor is supposed to be about putting other people’s needs before your own. Our job was to power through.

The shifts usually felt shorter than they were, because they were so hectic. There was always a new patient in the emergency room who needed to be admitted, or a staff member on the eighth floor (which was full of late-stage terminally ill people) who needed me to fill out a death certificate. Sleep deprivation manifested as bouts of anger and despair mixed in with some euphoria, along with other sensations I’ve not had before or since. I remember once sitting with the family of a patient in critical condition, discussing an advance directive—the terms defining what the patient would want done were his heart to stop, which seemed likely to happen at any minute. Would he want to have chest compressions, electrical shocks, a breathing tube? In the middle of this, I had to look straight down at the chart in my lap, because I was laughing. This was the least funny scenario possible. I was experiencing a physical reaction unrelated to anything I knew to be happening in my mind. There is a type of seizure, called a gelastic seizure, during which the seizing person appears to be laughing—but I don’t think that was it. I think it was plain old delirium. It was mortifying, though no one seemed to notice.

Why the ingrained expectation that women should desire to become parents is unhealthy

In 2008, Nebraska decriminalized child abandonment. The move was part of a "safe haven" law designed to address increased rates of infanticide in the state. Like other safe-haven laws, parents in Nebraska who felt unprepared to care for their babies could drop them off in a designated location without fear of arrest and prosecution. But legislators made a major logistical error: They failed to implement an age limitation for dropped-off children.

Within just weeks of the law passing, parents started dropping off their kids. But here's the rub: None of them were infants. A couple of months in, 36 children had been left in state hospitals and police stations. Twenty-two of the children were over 13 years old. A 51-year-old grandmother dropped off a 12-year-old boy. One father dropped off his entire family -- nine children from ages one to 17. Others drove from neighboring states to drop off their children once they heard that they could abandon them without repercussion.

His paranoid style paved the road for Trumpism. Now he fears what’s been unleashed.

Glenn Beck looks like the dad in a Disney movie. He’s earnest, geeky, pink, and slightly bulbous. His idea of salty language is bullcrap.

The atmosphere at Beck’s Mercury Studios, outside Dallas, is similarly soothing, provided you ignore the references to genocide and civilizational collapse. In October, when most commentators considered a Donald Trump presidency a remote possibility, I followed audience members onto the set of The Glenn Beck Program, which airs on Beck’s website, theblaze.com. On the way, we passed through a life-size replica of the Oval Office as it might look if inhabited by a President Beck, complete with a portrait of Ronald Reagan and a large Norman Rockwell print of a Boy Scout.

Since the end of World War II, the most crucial underpinning of freedom in the world has been the vigor of the advanced liberal democracies and the alliances that bound them together. Through the Cold War, the key multilateral anchors were NATO, the expanding European Union, and the U.S.-Japan security alliance. With the end of the Cold War and the expansion of NATO and the EU to virtually all of Central and Eastern Europe, liberal democracy seemed ascendant and secure as never before in history.

Under the shrewd and relentless assault of a resurgent Russian authoritarian state, all of this has come under strain with a speed and scope that few in the West have fully comprehended, and that puts the future of liberal democracy in the world squarely where Vladimir Putin wants it: in doubt and on the defensive.

The same part of the brain that allows us to step into the shoes of others also helps us restrain ourselves.

You’ve likely seen the video before: a stream of kids, confronted with a single, alluring marshmallow. If they can resist eating it for 15 minutes, they’ll get two. Some do. Others cave almost immediately.

This “Marshmallow Test,” first conducted in the 1960s, perfectly illustrates the ongoing war between impulsivity and self-control. The kids have to tamp down their immediate desires and focus on long-term goals—an ability that correlates with their later health, wealth, and academic success, and that is supposedly controlled by the front part of the brain. But a new study by Alexander Soutschek at the University of Zurich suggests that self-control is also influenced by another brain region—and one that casts this ability in a different light.

Modern slot machines develop an unbreakable hold on many players—some of whom wind up losing their jobs, their families, and even, as in the case of Scott Stevens, their lives.

On the morning of Monday, August 13, 2012, Scott Stevens loaded a brown hunting bag into his Jeep Grand Cherokee, then went to the master bedroom, where he hugged Stacy, his wife of 23 years. “I love you,” he told her.

Stacy thought that her husband was off to a job interview followed by an appointment with his therapist. Instead, he drove the 22 miles from their home in Steubenville, Ohio, to the Mountaineer Casino, just outside New Cumberland, West Virginia. He used the casino ATM to check his bank-account balance: $13,400. He walked across the casino floor to his favorite slot machine in the high-limit area: Triple Stars, a three-reel game that cost $10 a spin. Maybe this time it would pay out enough to save him.

“Well, you’re just special. You’re American,” remarked my colleague, smirking from across the coffee table. My other Finnish coworkers, from the school in Helsinki where I teach, nodded in agreement. They had just finished critiquing one of my habits, and they could see that I was on the defensive.

I threw my hands up and snapped, “You’re accusing me of being too friendly? Is that really such a bad thing?”

“Well, when I greet a colleague, I keep track,” she retorted, “so I don’t greet them again during the day!” Another chimed in, “That’s the same for me, too!”

Unbelievable, I thought. According to them, I’m too generous with my hellos.

When I told them I would do my best to greet them just once every day, they told me not to change my ways. They said they understood me. But the thing is, now that I’ve viewed myself from their perspective, I’m not sure I want to remain the same. Change isn’t a bad thing. And since moving to Finland two years ago, I’ve kicked a few bad American habits.

A report will be shared with lawmakers before Trump’s inauguration, a top advisor said Friday.

Updated at 2:20 p.m.

President Obama asked intelligence officials to perform a “full review” of election-related hacking this week, and plans will share a report of its findings with lawmakers before he leaves office on January 20, 2017.

Deputy White House Press Secretary Eric Schultz said Friday that the investigation will reach all the way back to 2008, and will examine patterns of “malicious cyber-activity timed to election cycles.” He emphasized that the White House is not questioning the results of the November election.

Asked whether a sweeping investigation could be completed in the time left in Obama’s final term—just six weeks—Schultz replied that intelligence agencies will work quickly, because the preparing the report is “a major priority for the president of the United States.”

A professor of cognitive science argues that the world is nothing like the one we experience through our senses.

As we go about our daily lives, we tend to assume that our perceptions—sights, sounds, textures, tastes—are an accurate portrayal of the real world. Sure, when we stop and think about it—or when we find ourselves fooled by a perceptual illusion—we realize with a jolt that what we perceive is never the world directly, but rather our brain’s best guess at what that world is like, a kind of internal simulation of an external reality. Still, we bank on the fact that our simulation is a reasonably decent one. If it wasn’t, wouldn’t evolution have weeded us out by now? The true reality might be forever beyond our reach, but surely our senses give us at least an inkling of what it’s really like.

We can all agree that Millennials are the worst. But what is a Millennial? A fight between The New York Times and Slate inspired us to try and figure that out.

This article is from the archive of our partner .

We can all agree that Millennials are the worst. But what is a Millennial? A fight between The New York Times and Slate inspired us to try and figure that out.

After the Times ran a column giving employers tips on how to deal with Millennials (for example, they need regular naps) (I didn't read the article; that's from my experience), Slate's Amanda Hess pointed out that the examples the Times used to demonstrate their points weren't actually Millennials. Some of the people quoted in the article were as old as 37, which was considered elderly only 5,000 short years ago.

The age of employees of The Wire, the humble website you are currently reading, varies widely, meaning that we too have in the past wondered where the boundaries for the various generations were drawn. Is a 37-year-old who gets text-message condolences from her friends a Millennial by virtue of her behavior? Or is she some other generation, because she was born super long ago? (Sorry, 37-year-old Rebecca Soffer who is a friend of a friend of mine and who I met once! You're not actually that old!) Since The Wire is committed to Broadening Human Understanding™, I decided to find out where generational boundaries are drawn.